How Chain Restaurants Are Adjusting Marketing Strategies Amid Economic Headwinds

Large restaurant brands often face the operating reality of intense competition and thin profit margins, a challenge that becomes even more acute during periods of unstable consumer confidence. These concerns have been heightened in 2025 so far by the economic pressure stemming from the Trump administration's repeatedly changing tariff plans.

Against this backdrop, many restaurant chains are leaning on their marketing departments to boost sales, with specific initiatives including launching bold creative campaigns, optimizing loyalty strategies, and increasing investment in digital technology.

"As uncertainty rises and tariffs could push prices higher, many chains are shifting their marketing strategies from price-oriented to nostalgic or innovative themes," said R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at location analytics platform Placer.ai.

Although most quick-service and fast-casual restaurant companies reported few bright spots in their earnings, the latest analysis from Marketing Dive reveals how marketers are striving to maintain positive relationships with consumers, highlighting several key trends.

Betting on cultural marketing

As the "canary in the coal mine" for the restaurant industry, McDonald's struggles are quite representative: U.S. same-store sales fell 3.6% in the first quarter of 2025, a stark contrast to the 12.6% increase in Q1 2023 and the 2.5% increase in Q1 2024.

"We entered 2025 knowing the QSR industry would face challenges due to macroeconomic uncertainty and consumer pressure," CEO Chris Kempczinski said on McDonald's most recent earnings call. "We are not immune to industry fluctuations or consumer pressure."

McDonald's continues to try to place its brand at the center of culture and replicate the success of its "Famous Orders" platform and the viral "Grimace Birthday" campaign of 2023. This year, the chain brought in John Cena to promote its value menu and launched Pokémon Happy Meals, but its biggest highlight may be the collaboration with the "A Minecraft Movie." The campaign launched in March and is McDonald's largest global marketing push to date, covering over 100 markets.

"We are encouraged by the consumer response to the Minecraft movie campaign and our overall performance in April, which demonstrates the value of combining our value platform with full-price promotions and excellent marketing execution," Kempczinski said on the Q1 earnings call.

According to iSpot data (shared by Marketing Dive), McDonald's estimated national linear TV ad spending in Q1 was $39.6 million, up nearly 75% year-over-year, with a focus on value ads and its partnership with WNBA star Angel Reese. The chain saw a 19.5% increase in website traffic driven by linear TV ads, outperforming other burger brands in a recent study by TV measurement firm EDO. The findings suggest McDonald's could achieve further growth by optimizing its TV ad spending, shifting from underperforming prime-time slots to early morning slots.

"In times of tightened budgets, QSR brands see strong consumer response to value meal ads, and every dollar—whether for consumers or advertisers—must work harder," Laura Grover, senior vice president and head of client solutions at EDO, said in a statement. "As marketers navigate this uncertain environment, impression quality becomes key to making smarter allocation decisions and ensuring higher returns on existing media resources."

Transformation through marketing

While McDonald's works to link its brand with pop culture, Starbucks is attempting to reshape its brand identity as part of its transformation plan, which includes significant marketing investment. Starbucks' U.S. comparable store sales fell 2% in Q1, and comparable transactions fell 4%, partially offset by a 3% increase in average order value.

The "Hello Again" and "Starbucks Monday" campaigns around the Super Bowl drove record customer engagement and helped achieve the chain's second-highest Monday total sales ever, CEO Brian Niccol said on a recent earnings call. The percentage of customers naming Starbucks as their first choice reached a two-year high, and TikTok engagement nearly tripled quarter-over-quarter.

"We are seeing steady traffic from non-Starbucks Rewards members, indicating that our broad marketing efforts to reintroduce Starbucks to the world are resonating with customers," Niccol said. "I think from a marketing standpoint, we will continue to improve from here."

Similar to Starbucks, Papa Johns is also implementing a transformation strategy where amplifying marketing messages is a key priority. To that end, the pizza chain launched the "Meet the Makers" campaign in March, the first creative work under Chief Marketing Officer Jenna Bromberg (who joined in November). According to CEO Todd Penegor, early results from the campaign have been positive, improving brand awareness and consideration among QSR consumers. Papa Johns' North America comparable sales fell 3% year-over-year in Q1.

Based on consumer insights, the chain plans to shift the campaign's focus to its use of simple, fresh ingredients. Papa Johns is also relying on incremental media investment to strengthen the brand and drive transactions.

"As we amplify our marketing messages, we are investing to win share of voice at the national and regional levels, drive transactions, support ongoing testing of value propositions, and improve our agility," Penegor said on the earnings call.

Loyalty programs continue to evolve

Across the restaurant industry, marketers are working to fine-tune and evolve their loyalty platforms and rewards programs to better meet the needs of price-sensitive consumers. McDonald's continues to see strong system sales from loyalty members, reaching $31 billion over the past 12 months, and is aiming for a goal of $45 billion annually by 2027. Despite encouraging loyalty sales, McDonald's is seeking a balance between its everyday value menu and limited-time digital offers.

"Using the app as the primary value source doesn't work until app usage becomes the majority of traffic, because you can't reach most consumers," Kempczinski said on the earnings call. "So having a broad platform like McValue that's accessible to everyone... that's a must, and that's why we're spending time and effort to launch it correctly."

Cava—which saw 10.8% year-over-year growth in Q1, making it one of the big winners among fast-casual chains—is also focusing on its loyalty program. Since the Mediterranean-style restaurant chain relaunched its loyalty program in October, sales generated through the program as a percentage of total revenue have risen by 340 basis points. Total program membership is approaching 8 million, with over 50,000 new registrations weekly. These results validate the chain's new approach to loyalty.

"The initial goal was to shift from a more transaction-based 'spend X, get Y' model to an 'earn and accumulate points' model to drive higher engagement and program participation, which is exactly what we're seeing," CEO Brett Schulman said on the earnings call. "We focused on low- or medium-frequency users, lowered the reward thresholds, and this has made these users more active."

For Cava, bringing customers into its first-party ecosystem increases personalization opportunities and creates an engaging environment for testing and learning. The chain plans to launch the second phase of its loyalty program, introducing a tier structure based on visit frequency, adding more benefits and rewards.

"The level of insight we have into our customers today plays a significant role in shaping the execution elements of our loyalty program."

— Michael Skipworth, CEO of Wingstop

Similar to what competitor and loyalty innovator Domino's did previously, Papa Johns lowered the redemption threshold for Papa Rewards in November, a change that helped add approximately 1 million new loyalty members in Q1, bringing total membership to over 37 million. While this change also led to a slight decrease in order size, it drove growth among medium- and high-frequency loyalty consumers and accelerated repeat purchases.

While established brands adjust their loyalty programs, new entrants are emerging. Wingstop will pilot a loyalty program in Q4 and plans a full rollout in 2026. The program will leverage insights and member data from its MyWingstop digital ordering platform's database of 50 million members to provide experiential engagement opportunities for Gen Z and millennial consumers.

"We believe our loyalty program will be unique in the industry because we haven't adopted a typical transactional design. The level of insight we have into our customers today plays a significant role in shaping the execution elements of our loyalty program," CEO Michael Skipworth said on the earnings call.

Investing in digital technology

Beyond behind-the-scenes work like building loyalty programs and integrating customer relationship management data, restaurant chains are also investing in technology to enhance their mobile and digital ecosystems. In the app space, Starbucks will update its app to allow scheduling of mobile order pickup times and improve price transparency. Chipotle continues to work on reducing friction in its app, while Wendy's added gamification elements in Q1 to encourage customers to engage with the brand beyond purchases.

Artificial intelligence (AI) remains the hottest technology in marketing, and the restaurant industry is no exception. Papa Johns partnered with Google Cloud last month to use AI to enhance personalization and the ordering and delivery experience.

"So far, generative AI has mainly been used to help companies fine-tune consumer-facing messages, but we're starting to see other behind-the-scenes AI platforms used to gain better customer insights and apply them to one-on-one interactions," Placer.ai's Hottovy said.

"These advancements are driving smarter targeting, greater efficiency, and stronger returns on our digital marketing investments."

— Chris Turner, CFO of Yum Brands

Yum Brands (parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut) has partnered with Nvidia to accelerate its AI deployment. The company launched a proprietary suite of software-as-a-service tools called Byte by Yum in February, integrating multiple technology products across thousands of restaurants. The suite's solutions are already showing early results, helping Taco Bell expand its advertising creative boundaries and use personalization to generate incremental sales. Yum's digital sales across its entire portfolio grew 12% year-over-year in Q1, with executives attributing this growth to the company's technology investments. Overall, Yum's global system sales grew 5%, partly driven by an 11% increase in Taco Bell's U.S. system sales.

"Our U.S. brands are leveraging a powerful data engine and a first-of-its-kind cross-brand consumer data platform to deliver personalized marketing campaigns," Yum CFO Chris Turner said on the earnings call. "Since late last year, we've expanded AI-driven marketing use cases across our brands, further embedding intelligence into how we engage and convert consumers. These advancements are driving smarter targeting, greater efficiency, and stronger returns on our digital marketing investments."